The Promise
by Bourguit
Summary: This is the story of Balrog before meeting up with M. Bison and how a promise changed his life. It's a back story with a more personal and realistic look. It's not completely game canon, but I wished he had a story like this.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: November, 1984**

Balrog is training with his girlfriend, Maria, in the ring with focus mitt drills. He hates these drills, because it's hard for him to not look at her. She doesn't have his in blue tank tops and boxing trunks, instead she likes to wear to thin white shirts and tight running pants. Her Dominican body is tall and fit, but her hazel eyes always drew him in. He's in hell, but Run DMC's Rock Box playing on the radio helps him to concentrate a little.

She is just as talented with boxing as she is with beauty. She doesn't have the muscle he has but she's just as fit. She was the best female boxer at the YMCA they went together when they were kids. She could have gone to the league starting up California this year if it wasn't for her condition, a rare brain cancer that the doctor called with a name he couldn't understand or remember. All he remembers is that it's partially beguine and that she can live a normal life without boxing; that was all he needed to know.

"Come on Balrog, you're slipping. One, two, three...go!"

Balrog hits the mitts in a three punch combination.

"One, two, three…go!"

Balrog hits the mitts in the same three punch combination, but his timing is perfect.

"Good! Two short hooks and an uppercut…go!"

Balrog hits the mitts with speed and intensity. He's feeling the sweet science coming together.

"Again…go!"

As he hits the bag, he's growing in his confidence as she smiles and sees the love in her eyes.

"Here comes Balrog, the next champion of the world. Again…go!"

As he punches, he envisions the championship belt on one shoulder and Maria on the other. After launching a heavy uppercut that connects hard against the Mitt, Maria is knocked back against the ropes, with a body spasm that lasted only for two seconds before she stood up straight.

"Yo Maria, you alright," Balrog asks when he walks to her side.

She doesn't answer back; she just starts to touch her head. The other trainers that were watching his footwork start to run into the ring, but as soon as they take the mitts off she pushes them away, yelling, "Get back, I'm fine." The trainers do, taking the mitts away. The only thing they feared aside from death, taxes, and Maria's temper was making her do anything that pushed her too much; it was a constant balance between her health and her pride.

"Don't look at me like that!" Maria slaps Balrog against the side of his head. No offense taken, he gave her the ok to do that years ago, it's the hardest part of his body; although it's a privilege she takes too often for his liking. Pointing at his face, she says, "Hey, I'm fine. Don't lose that momentum. Do some shadow boxing, ok?"

"But…"

She interrupts, "Hey! I'm right here." She points to his heart. "And I'm here." She touches his forehead. "And I'm here." She touches his red boxing gloves. She says a little gentler, "Now do some shadow boxing while I watch for five minutes, then hit the heavy-bag."

He walks to the center of the ring and starts, but his eyes looks at her for a moment.

"That's ten minutes to your heavy-bag drills. And I'm going to add another then every time you lose focus."

He knows she means it. As he works on his form and his jabs, he thinks about the fight coming up in a few months that will make him the number one contender for the championship belt. A lot of eyes are on him, but he's considered the underdog against Bubba "The Ice Man" Johnson. It's nothing new to Balrog; he's been considered an underdog all his life. It doesn't matter, he has all the people he needs in his corner.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: January 15, 1985**

The ring bells, signaling the end of the fifth round, as Balrog goes to his corner happy that his hearing is coming back. Aside from his sweat, his face is partially covered in his blood. He immediately sits down on the chair as soon as it's placed behind him. His trainers do their best to maintain the cut over his right eyelash and ice the bruise near his left eye to stop it from swelling up.

Maria is screaming and cursing at him, half in English and half in Spanish. She's telling him things that he already knows, The "Ice Man" is pressuring him too much with precision punches and that he can't afford to wait for the right moment. It wasn't until she told him that he's going to do more push-ups and running regiments to his training that he looks at her and really pay attention.

She says, "Oh, are you listening to me now?"

"Yeah," he answers simply.

"Good, then take off your damn dress and knock this guy out."

Even through his bleared vision, he watches as she shows him when and why he's missing his punches and why he's getting caught flat footed. Despite how angry she is with him, he can't help but think how lucky he is to have her.

She says as she grabs his gloves, "I promised you, you're never alone. I'm fighting with you. Do you believe me?"

"Yeah."

"Then take it to him and win!"

The rest of what she said was in Spanish, it was either to ask for God for help or her threatening him if he loses; he doesn't want to ask for a clarification.

He gets up as the time to rest is over. Round two starts slow after the bell. The "Ice Man" looks like he's sure of himself, he doesn't go for the kill. He's taking his time too look good. Balrog thinks of Maria's words. She always had faith in him, so he can't lose faith in himself.

Balrog moves with a few quick jabs that connects and moves side to side away from his opponent's response with two haymaker punches. Balrog darts back and forth, landing more jabs, seeing the sudden shift from the over-confidence to frustration in the "Ice Man." Motivated by the crowd slowly coming around to his side, he bobs and weaves as the "Ice Man" swings back and forth, trying to go for a one hot knock out. It's met with more jabs, then two short hooks, and an uppercut that all connect.

Balrog briefly looks behind the "Ice Man," as a wave people are getting off their seats; they know what's coming and they are anxious to see it, they're screaming for it. He shuffles away from punches easier as his punches become like hammers, chipping away at the "Ice Man." Balrog is feeling the sweet science.

With twenty seconds left on the clock, Balrog sees an opening and lands his three punch combination. The "Ice Man" goes down. Balrog is breathing heavy as the referee counts. The "Ice Man" quickly staggers up. Before the referee can confirm if he can continue he's pushed aside by the "Ice Man", who then starts swinging wildly at Balrog. Balrog dodges and lands a haymaker. The "Ice Man" goes down hard. The referee pushes Balrog back to a neutral corner and starts counting.

"1…2…"

Balrog doesn't realize how tired he is until he finally puts his guard down to rest his arms, using as much time as he can to take deep breathes.

"5…6…"

He stops watching the referee's count and blocks out the crowd as they count with the referee. Balrog watches as the "Ice Man" slowly moves, wondering if he's going to jump at him again. Balrog remembers Maria's words, he needs to stay focused.

"10…he's out!"

As the crowd screams with delight, he raises his arms as high as he could. Maria is the first one to dash into the ring. She runs to him with a proud smile on her face. She hugs him immediately and kisses his cheek. "I love you."

"Whatever stupid," she says with smile. She raises his right arm as the referee raises his left. His name is yelled loudly Maria, starting a chant to form from the audience.

Through the hugs the followed from his trainers and friends, Balrog catches in the VIP section two rows across a man in a red suit with slicked black hair. It was easy to see him, as the largest man Balrog's ever seen with an eye patch stands up next to him. The man in the red suit is sure Balrog is looking at him, because the man suddenly smiles widely like a devil and claps along the crowd.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: June 27, 1985**

Balrog runs out the elevator, finding Maria's family at the hospital waiting room. He slightly regrets his decision to drive from the gym straight to the hospital as he stands there in his work out clothes; though, he'd make the same decision ten out of ten times. Her parents are sitting together, crying. He's scared into a frozen state and becomes like statue as their tears and solemn faces makes him fear the worse. Maria's younger sister sees him first. She runs and hugs him.

Through her tears and being partially muffled from his shirt, he's told that Maria had some kind of brain attack and they've been working on her for the past hour. He didn't have any words he could say or try to be positive. He just provided a shoulder to cry on to whom ever needed it.

After several hours later, they are told by the doctor that the operation was brief as they could only keep her stable. Her condition became worse since her last check up. It gave Balrog solace that her training with him had nothing to do with it her attack.

The doctor continues. There's research being done on an operation that requires the right equipment to help her, but it'd require specially trained surgeons, and donors for brain tissue and nerves. Technical terms were being used for a few minutes, but what grounded him was that it'd take years to prepare for and would cost $50 million.

After the doctor leaves with his best sentiments, her family decides to leave. Balrog says goodbye to everyone, but he decides to stay.

After the third shift signs in, he's awakened from his sleep on the bench and was asked to leave. He promises tickets to the championship fight he was allotted if he got to see her for five minutes. It didn't talk long before people got him into the room. A nurse leads the way to Maria, her bed closest to the window. Her head is wrapped in white bandages and she's wired to a monitored with a strong sounding beep.

"Five minutes," the nurses as she walks out.

He sits down on the free chair near her and he sits down, holding her hands. In that instant her eyes slowly open. She looks at his hand and then looks at his face. It seems to him that it hurts her to move, but she still smiles. He kisses the top of the forehead and whispers, "Hey girl."

He sees her try to open her mouth, but she can't; as if it's too much of a burden. He rubs his left hand against his face and says softly, "Its ok, its ok."

She tears as she nods slowly with disagreement. He wipes away the tears on his face, as he feels them roll off his chin. "There you go, arguing with me again."

She breathes hard as she struggles to lift her left arm. She points with a shaking hand to his heart, then to his head, and then she holds his hands tightly.

He nods with confirmation, kissing her hands and then he buries his head on her side to cry. She places her hand on his head.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: December 2, 1985**

Balrog has been swinging wildly at the champion for the past three rounds, stalking his opponent with blood lust. The forth round isn't any different. Balrog isn't a challenger, he's a head hunter. In his attempt, Balrog is getting lefts and rights to the body. The champion suddenly comes at Balrog fast with a left, Balrog dodges and swings back with a one-two combination. The champion briefly stunned, Balrg rallies back and lands two more punches to his head.

The bell rings the end of the round and the crowd cheers them both; they're getting their money's worth tonight. Balrog sits down, getting use to the network camera to his side. He disguises how hurt he is as his head is getting cooled with a wet towel. Balrog is getting told again to focus on the body, his pounding head agrees.

The fifth round starts and the champion is caught off guard and buckles a little as Balrog immediately lands three hits to the body. Balrog sees a wave of people standing, thinking something will happen, but they soon sit back down after the champion covers up and rests against the ropes to get his footing back. A little voice in his head tells Balrog to avoid following the champion to the ropes. Deciding not to agree with it, he takes a step back, just as the champion springs back with punches, just misses Balrog's face by an inch. The champion comes back with punch combo after combo, landing against Balrog's ribs and his head. Balrog can take the head shots, his head is rock, but the voice tells him to cover up so he does.

The bell rings, the champion looks angry at Balrog. Balrog uncovers and just smiles defiantly. As Balrog's corner cleaning up blood from his nose, he's asked how bad he wants it again and again. The one glimmer of advise comes from his head, telling him that he needs to use the tools he has, because the champion realizes he's a real threat and it's about to become a dog fight.

The round starts and the champ starts moving faster. He's not pulling any punches. Balrog buckles several times before he realizes he needs to be smart. His punches were getting less crisp, but they were still affective when they hit. Balrog started throwing combinations, knowing that only one punch would go through but it stopped the champion's rally. In a sudden fury of exchanged punches and counterpunches with the champion, Balrog uses a five punch combo that knocks the champion to the ropes. The bell rings.

The rounds go on in the same fashion. It's now his last break and his face is getting glazed with Vaseline. His whole crew tells him to put the champion down because he's going to use up the clock and go for the win with the points. Balrog knows they're right. The champion depended less on his power punches and started to move away from Balrog in the last round.

Balrog feels motivated as his crew screams at him to get it done. As both fighters get up, the crowd is on their feet clapping and cheering. The start of the round Balrog charges in being reckless with his guard down, getting caught with quick jabs. But Balrog pushes the champion into the ring and lands a hard right to the face. The following counter punches from the champion makes Balrog put him in a lazy head lock, where they both took precious seconds to catch their breath.

The referee pushes them away from each other. They exchange punches and a shift of momentum goes to the champion, who still had speed in his hands. Balrog covers up. His mind is going to Maria still lying on the hospital bed. It was then that one word screamed at him in a loud, furious echo: _fight_!

Balrog surprises the champion with a fast one-two combination. He dodges away from counterpunches and unleashes a haymaker that hits the champion squarely against his chin. He doesn't realize that the champion has stopped fighting back or gets excited when he has him against the ropes, he just keeps punching. Even after the referee pulls him away, waving his hands, it took the champion falling to the ground and his crew rushing to his aid that Balrog realized that he's the new champion of the world.

After he celebrates with his crew, he sees the same man in a red suit next to a man or woman; Balrog really couldn't tell. But as in the last fight, he stands up with the same smile and claps excitingly.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: February 4, 1987 **

Balrog was kicked out of boxing a year ago. Even though he was in more fights, they became bloodier and more brutal. The last straw was when he lost his cool and head butted the last fighter for making a comment about Maria. Balrog didn't shed a tear when he was pronounced dead that night. Unfortunately, his brutality made people forget about him. The media turned his back on him, calling him a brute, a brawler, and street fighter.

For the past year, the money he has been trying to raise through the church and personal donations dried. Balrog didn't have cereal deals or people calling him for movie deals. The street was where he came from, so it was there he went back to get money. At least in the street there was no limit or restriction to getting what you want, so long as you had the guts to do what you needed to do and is smart about it.

Balrog stalks the alleyways with a black mask, being selective to not cross anyone that might have resources to get back to him. He surprises a man jogging down the street and pulls him into the alley. In mid-process of the mugging, Balrog is told information in trade of keeping his gold necklace and wallet. The information is that a secret recruitment is starting for a big fight of some kind, but it wasn't until he is told that a man in a red suit is going to pay big money that Balrog took him seriously.

That same night, Balrog goes into gym where the recruitment was taking place. Balrog goes in unopposed by the guards at the side door. Balrog goes inside and sees several men and women waiting in line in front of a sign up table. Balrog watches as people that just getting rejected arguing with the people at the table. They leave as the tall man with the eye batch walks to the table.

The tall man sees Balrog in the back and signals to come forward. As Balrog walks closer, he sees the man normally in a red suit not in some kind of red uniform and hat. He turns and sees Balrog. He smiles his devil smile and claps happily. Despite the attention, a voice in his head tells him that this is a bad place. Balrog apologizes to the voice; he doesn't have any other choice.

_Fin_


End file.
